Alamosa

Alamosa is the main city in the San Luis Valley, Colorado. The trains arrive from Pueblo to East Yard, just outside the city. On the way from Pueblo is Walsenburg and La Veta Pass. At East Yard the train is split up into two locals. One serve the branch to South Fork and the other goes south to Antonito. Until the middle of the 60s most of the tracks in the town and the branch to Antonito were dual gauge.

Steve Rasmussen has written a wonderful article about the traffic in the Valley. The article was published in Trains October, 1995. He is at the moment writing a book about the railroad in San Luis Valley. I'm already looking forward to 2000 when it is going to be released.

I have tried to draw a map that would show the yard in Alamosa during the 60s. I have used a copy of a map I have got from Steve Rasmussen. His map is from the beginning of the centery. I have added some information from other sources. A picture in the book Alamosa, A Quick History by Leland Feitz has a photo from the mid 40s on page 51 where you can see most of the yard in the town. The tracks on the photo looks like the map I got from Steve Rasmussen. There is some changes in the transferyard where the P&H crane is situated today.

Only a smal portion of the tracks remained when I visited Alamosa in March 1998 and 1999. I have drawn a map that shows the tracks i the central part of Alamosa 1999.